Mastercard ramps up efforts to ditch card numbers for safer online shopping – report

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) is ramping up its efforts to eradicate the use of credit card numbers for online transactions, seeking to curb fraud, according to a Friday media report.

The payment behemoth is now processing 1B transactions in which consumers’ card numbers are replaced with so-called tokens, CEO Michael Miebach said in an interview at Mastercard’s London offices, Bloomberg reported.

In an effort to fight the growing issue of online payment fraud, Mastercard (MA) is now planning to broaden the use of token technology to replace traditional security measures, such as passwords, with biometric data, including fingerprints and facial recognition, he added.

Mastercard (MA) will team up with banks and payment providers globally to replace one-time passwords with a token based on biometric information of consumers, the article said.

In June, the card network reportedly aimed to transition online payments in Europe to a tokenized system rather than the current manual entry by 2030.

(MA) shares edged up 0.4% in Friday morning trading.